Integrated Case Management: The View of Social Workers

Abstract

• Access to the Community Integration Plan (CIPs) before the case conference is variable. • There was substantial criticism of the large volume of information contained in CIPs noting that much of it was repeated elsewhere, or that it was out of date or irrelevant.  • Despite irregular access to the CIP 86% of respondents felt that enough preparation was done before case conferences.  • Prison and community based social workers were present at substantially more conferences than other professionals.  • Despite this general view that attendance from other agencies could be sporadic, 68% of respondents felt the ICM process enhanced multi-agency working and a further quarter stated that this was sometimes the case.  • The majority of practitioners felt the conferences are generally useful for the prisoner with just 18% stating they were only sometimes useful and 1% feeling they were ‘not really beneficial’.  • There is confusion about who should invite family members to the conference, and there was also concern regarding the amount of preparation done with the family.  • Respondents were divided as to whether there was consistency in the approach to ICM across the prison estate.  • Nearly two-thirds of respondents felt the ICM process could be improved, with most comments focusing the need for better inter-agency attendance, concerns that case conferences could be repetitive or fail to cover issues relevant to the prisoner at certain points in their sentence, and that the day to day prison regime could be a practical barrier to conducting productive case conferences.